Documents: Sweden Wiretapping Russia’s International Traffic For The NSA

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Privacy

Privacy

Earlier documents put in context with recent revelations show that Sweden has been systematically wiretapping Russia on behalf of the United States. This is clear after putting a number of previous questionable agreements and developments in context today. The question that remains is what Sweden gets in return.

The story begins with a reporter’s feature in 2005 about the secretive Swedish intelligence agency FRA, Försvarets Radioanstalt, translated loosely to National Defense Radio Establishment. The story of Echelon had just broke, and the reporter Martin Jönsson dug far below the dirty surface. One thing that comes across in this new context is this passage:

The NSA is the largest intelligence organization of the United States of America and of the world. […] The NSA is the center of the wiretapping network, where the FRA is also plays a part. The NSA is considerably larger than the CIA, and is targeted at signals intelligence. It operates planet-wide through wiretapping stations on the ground, on aircraft, on ships, and on satellites. Through an agreement from early Cold War days, there are close ties to the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. One of the common computer systems, Echelon, has erroneously come to be used synonymously with the entire surveillance network.

It’s also important to note just how deep the rabbit hole goes in the cooperation between the Swedish FRA and the U.S. NSA, and how questionable the real allegiance of the FRA is. A former Navy captain recalls when he had had FRA troops on board (part of the story):

“They had important information they didn’t share with the Swedish Defense. We were developing countermeasures against Soviet missiles to protect our ships. At that point, the FRA had detailed information about the missiles in question; information they had received from the Americans. They didn’t give it to the Navy, and that was to protect their source, the NSA. It was more important to protect the cooperation with the NSA than it was to protect Swedish lives and interests.”

We know since the Echelon debate that the key players in the NSA wiretapping network are known to be five countries – the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Early 2007, reports surfaced in media that Sweden would get access to U.S. information and security research through an “exclusive agreement”, where Sweden would be “the sixth country”. This was a very conspicuous wording, but makes sense in context. According to the media reports, the agreement between Sweden and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would be signed “late March”.

At the same time, a horrible piece of legislation had appeared in Sweden. Known as the FRA law, it allowed and mandated wiretapping of everything if it happened to cross Sweden’s borders at some point – web surfing, phone calls, mail, video conferences, the works. It was a violation of constitutionally and conventionally guaranteed privacy rights on every conceivable level. It changed the standard from “you have a right to expectation of privacy” to “for all intents and purposes, you are always wiretapped”.

There were huge protests against the wiretapping law at the time, in no small amount coordinated by myself and other pirate activists. With the administration having a very narrow parliamentary majority, the media drama logic was perfect. Unfortunately, the administration won, and the law passed – but I’ve learned since that the protests outside Parliament on that day really shook the administration to the core. To no avail, unfortunately.

“If we’re coordinating, it’s a rally, and we would need a permit, which we won’t get since it’s on the steps of Parliament. I’m going there as a private individual, completely unorganized. And then, perhaps a couple thousand other people are doing the same thing, how would I know?”

Back to the Sweden-U.S. security agreement:

April 13, 2007. Swedish Minister of Defense, Odenberg (right), signs an agreement with the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Chertoff (left). Put in context, the effect of the agreement is to wiretap all of Russia's international traffic and share it with the NSA. What did Sweden get in return?

As the Minister of Defense Odenberg signed the security cooperation agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the debate intensified in Sweden, to the point where the U.S. Embassy took an interest in the FRA law (according to the WikiLeaks cables).

Media reacted to this, and asked pertinent and important questions at the time, none of which got a response. In a piece titled “A deal with Washington is not a tea party“, one of Sweden’s largest dailies were sharply critical. Other newspapers, and the entire cadre of bloggers, echoed that sentiment.

Some time later, the actual agreement leaked through an unknown mechanism. It states that the U.S. and Sweden are basically to share surveillance and wiretapping data for security purposes, and much more. (Do note that the metadata of the document says it’s an agreement between Australia and the U.S., suggesting that there is a similar agreement in place between those countries, and that the metadata remained after the U.S. re-edited the agreement for Sweden.)

“The objective of this Agreement is to establish a framework to encourage, develop and facilitate bilateral Cooperative Activity in science and technology that contributes to the homeland security capabilities of both Parties in: a) the prevention and detection of, response to, and forensics and attribution applied to, terrorist or other homeland security threats and/or indicators […] The Parties shall seek to achieve the objectives […] by means which may include, but are not limited to: a) facilitating a systematic exchange of technologies, personnel, and information derived from or applied to similar and complementary operational Research, Development, Testing and Evaluation; b) collaborating to develop technologies and prototype systems that assist in countering present and anticipated terrorist actions in their respective territories and other homeland threats that satisfy their common strategic interests and requirements” [etc]

Back to the FRA law. The concept of wiretapping everybody warrantlessly all the time was hugely controversial (rightly so), and the administration tried to justify it with every trick in the book. Among the less credible attempts was the statement that the wiretapping was necessary to protect our troops in Afghanistan against insurgents there. The obvious counterquestion – why on this green Earth insurgents in Afghanistan would use e-mail and phonecalls over Swedish servers – was met with a telling silence.

Then, Swedish media broke the story of what the FRA law was for: wiretappingRussia. 80% of all international Russian internet traffic passes through Sweden, making it an ideal wiretapping point if you want to keep tabs on an adversary. It made perfect sense. It was still a violation of fundamental privacy rights, but at least it made sense, especially in combination with the high-profile data-sharing agreement.

“TeliaSonera has one of the world’s biggest global fiberoptic cable networks. The company maps show that the cabling is routed so all traffic to and from Russia goes through Sweden. All Russian mail and phonecalls abroad go through Stockholm, regardless of where the recipients are located.”

The administration protested loudly against those media breaks at the time, stating that the reports “hurt Swedish security”. That language is familiar by now.

Putting it all together, Sweden is wiretapping Russia for the NSA, and has been doing so since the FRA law took effect in Sweden. The FRA agency is continuously wiretapping Russia based on the agreement signed in April, 2007, and sharing the data with the NSA.

In this context, it is no coincidence that Sweden and the UK, as the only two European countries, recently chose to block EU investigations into U.S. wiretapping of European officials and industries.

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About The Author: Rick Falkvinge

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.

No, he would not spend one single day in a Swedish prison. The reason for this is that the time in detention in the UK would be deducted from any sentence, and that time is already far above any practical maximum sentence with the charges on the table.

That piece of fact is important as it helps understand motivations. The guy does not fear prison and has no reason to.

considering how Sweden has been seen to do anything and everything that the USA wants, this is no surprise to me! that was shown in the way the Pirate bay 4 were totally stitched up at trial! the Swedish people now need to show how they feel about these goings on! then they need to get something done about the way Sweden is bending over at every demand from the USA! the really ridiculous thing about all this spying crap is where it originates! every fucking instance has the USA involved somehow! there doesn’t need to be any terrorist activity, any terrorist attacks, the USA is doing just as much damage (without perhaps actually killing people, yet) without them taking part! what a mess they have turned the world into. and the even sadder thing is, the world is not only letting them, it’s actually helping them! how pathetic is that??

“the Swedish people now need to show how they feel about these goings on! then they need to get something done about the way Sweden is bending over at every demand from the USA!”

I’m very sorry, but your “Swedish people” will never show what they feel.. basically because they feel very little. Unless you use simple, black and white demagogics like “Mass immigration!!1!one1!”

Prime minister “Benito Bendover”, Carl “Me” Bildt and the conservatives, as well as the social democrats have long known that people prefer not to bother.

I can’t remember IN which article I read it, but George Orwell wrote once something like “fascism may be instigated and ushered in by those in black shirts, parading the streets, but it will be upheld by the spectating crowd, quietly watching and agreeing.”

One question crossed my mind after reading this text. The Constitution and the laws normally forbid the privacy breach regarding individuals under their jurisdiction unless such deeds are done in accordance with the law and because it is in the interest of the society (for example: on judges order, due to a criminal activity of some individual). The Constitution and the laws of one sovereign country have no effect outside its borders so the intelligence services customary break the laws of other countries by gathering all data on their activity and the activity of their citizens.

Now, is there anything in legislation that forbids the intelligence services to bypass the restrictions set by Constitution and the laws by spying on each others citizens and then exchanging these vast amounts of data? Can the FRA spy on every single citizen of Sweden using NSA as the proxy? Can all the other countries do so?

Some countries have laws which rule that evidence gathered illegally is inadmissible as evidence in court and doesn’t count as a basis for police suspicion (in the USA, that doctrine is known as the fruit of the poisoned tree), but that usually only applies to police and civil and criminal courts, not to revenue or customs officers, border guards, military police, intelligence services, and the like, and it doesn’t (in practice) prevent confidential tip-offs based on illegal evidence being used to “discover” legal evidence.

Encryption is a must because it will make your communication private but it is just a temporary bonus. Encryption can and will be all broken over time so it is not a real solution if everyone is wiretapping everything you say and storing it.

“Not only has the debt of households, firms and governments increased as a share of GDP in most countries since 2007, but debt-service ratios are now higher in most rich countries than the 1995-2007 average—despite low interest rates. The country with the highest debt ratio is Sweden.” http://www.cnbc.com/id/100836919

“After having left his political position as leader of the Moderate Party in 1999, apart from being engaged on international issues, Bildt took up a number of private sector positions as well as with international think-tanks. In the later category, he served as the first non-US member ever of the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation (Santa Monica) and on the Advisory Board of the Centre for European Reform (London). He was also a member of the board of the European Policy Center (Brussels) as well as the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London) and the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Affairs (New York). In the corporate sector in the US, he served as non-executive director of the Baltimore-based US assets management company Legg Mason, Inc. Among Swedish-dominated companies, he served as Chairman of the Board of Teleopti as well as of the public affairs consultancy Kreab AB, and Board member of the IT consultancy HiQ AB. He was also Chairman of Nordic Venture Network, bringing Nordic high-tech VC firms together in an informal network. In 2002 Bildt joined the board of directors of Vostok Nafta, a financial company primarily with holdings in Gazprom. Bildt was also a member of the board of oil company Lundin Petroleum. …” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Bildt
————
-Introduction: Carl Bildt, C-Span, anno 1992 – “The new world order is a possibility” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sd0SQsOfuw

Information is power after all. And the the internet is the ultimte conduit of inromation now.
The US has always fought to control critical locations, like spots on the middle east or europe.
And they have always done their real work undercover while they give some made up show to the media.
Seeking to possess all information through a critical location seems like the logical extension of their long running international policies, doign it all in secret of course.

So yeah, a very predictable thing.
But still unjustified. Stull unfair. Still not cool.
Just like it would never have been cool if there was a program where the government checked every letter without anyone knowing it but suddenly one day people found about it. “Oh you knew we must have been doing it!” Yeah but it is still wrong, it is still illegal, a crime is being commited why is no one stopping it?

Is this the future of the internet?
Every country wiretapping all the information going through it, politics become a game of getting deals with other well positioned countries to get their wiretapped data as well?
Eventually one huge international database, the death of private communication over the internet and a permanent schilling effect worldwide?

Dern, screwed up the anti-spambot answer and it ATE my message. oO Gonna try this again.

Maybe it’s time for all the Internet services in rest of the EU to beef up their own infrastructure, in a way that bypasses Sweden — that is, make themselves the NEW main juncture for EU Internet — and set things up so only things bound for someone IN Sweden get routed to Sweden.

Answer: Sweden will not get anything in return from the US. The silly little country that always kiss the boots of the strongest super-power around. First it was nazi Germany, then Stalin’s Soviet, and now the US. The trusting naivety of Sweden is just laughable. Sweden believe in the goodness of others and that the words of an arrogant superpower can be trusted. The silly blond trusting blue-eyed naivety (“godtrogenhet”) is just laughable.

Sweden as a nation will get nothing in return. But foreign minster Carl Bildt will get a star in his file in Washington for selling out his own country, once again. And little Bildt will once again get his naive hope up about being accepted by the Big Boys and maybe maybe maybe get that coveted international top job that he has hoped for all his life. Pathetic.

Individuals in Sweden sure get cake from the US for serving. There is swedish police officer Jim Keyser who the day after finished investigation was offered a well paid 6 month Hollywood job. Other people involved in the pirate bay trial could probably expect similar “encouragements”.

The US can do this and get away with it not because of swedes naiveness towards US as a nation, but our naiveness towards our own bureaucrats tendencies to be corrupted and even more important: vår förbannade flathet när de väl avslöjas.

Not in Sweden, no. But if he would go to Sweden, he would be extradited to the USA in the blink of an eye, and there the prison sentence would be much longer. Lifetime, most likely, if he’s not executed.

Well i think EU needs to get a backbone on this, sweden and Uk shame! USA tut tut all ill say, might get deported from uk for being actually british and speaking out, maybe things will change with the east catching up on the west GOOD for them :)))

I do not really get it, why the actual agreement between USA and sweden regarding the research cooperation for homeland security matters is something like top secret and leaked through an unknown mechanism???

Has it escaped the attention of Swedes that Carl Bildt, a former Member of the Board of Trustees of the CIA’s Rand Corporation, is the Senior International Advisor and a Board Member of a US data-capture company, Akin Gump Global Solutions, and Senior International Advisor and a Board Member of the US company Booz Allen Hamilton Holdings — one of the major contractors of the NSA and Edward Snowden’s former employer? Of course, Bildt’s suck-up relationships with Karl Rove and Condoleeza Rice are notorious. But, as a foreigner, I am simply astounded to learn that Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs manifest conflicts of interest have apparently been tolerated in the nation — also to think that, as a de facto US agent, Bildt is likely the spiritus rector in Sweden’s persecution of Assange. Will Bildt now greet and suck up to Obama?

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About The Author

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.